Blog 1: Landslide monitoring for the Himalayan region- Introduction

Introduction

This is the first blog for the Just Encase Design Challenge. This blog describes my project proposal and gives an overall view of the project implementation.

I propose to design a landslide monitoring system for the Himalayan region. Every year, many tourists visit the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, esp. during winters as it is one of the few states in India that receives snowfall. However, during extreme weather conditions, landslides are very common in these areas. This news article states, in the year 2021 itself, the landslides have increased by 116% than 2020. It has become risky to travel and this also hampers the economy of the state as tourism is one of the major revenue-generating industries in Himachal Pradesh.

Here, I propose a system to tackle the landslides problem, landslides cannot be prevented but an early warning system for landslides can save lives and quicker response from the local authorities to clear the road for traffic.

The basic idea is to use an MCU (Arduino MKR WAN 1300) interfaced with multiple sensors that can detect the landslide and provide an audio, visual alarm. There will be two units, one is the sensing unit that will have an Arduino MKR WAN 1300 with the sensors and the other will be at a far-off distance with another Arduino interfaced to LEDs/LCD for visual display and a buzzer for the audio alarm.

The electronics have to be kept safe so that it does not get damaged by the impact of the debris/landslide hence, the sensing unit will be enclosed in one of the enclosure boxes provided in the kit. This will serve multiple purposes, first, in case a landslide occurs, the circuit inside will be safe and the same sensing unit can be used again, this will bring down the cost of the sensor box, as new sensor units won't be needed to be installed for any further landslide detection in the same area. Second, this will also test the durability and ruggedness of the Hammond Enclosure serving the purpose of this design challenge and not to forget the most important aspect - landslide monitoring can save lives and prevent accidents.

The basic block diagram of the proposed system is shown below. This will be modified as per the availability of the sensors.

Field Testing

In order to test the working of the system and test the enclosure, I will try to induce an artificial landslide by dropping debris on the enclosure and dropping it from certain heights from mountain peaks. Posting a few pictures of my institute and nearby mountains located in the beautiful state of Himachal Pradesh in India where I plan to conduct the testing of this project.

In my next blog, I will do an unboxing of the kit that I received from element14 and do some interfacing of parts from the Grove kit with the Arduino MKR WAN 1300.

I would like to thank the e14 team and Hammond Manufacturing for giving me this opportunity to work on an exciting project.